Today’s roundup of AdExchanger.com news… Want it by email? Sign up here.
AdExchanger’s daily news will return on Tuesday, January 17. We will not be posting any content on Monday, January 16th in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Non-Human Capital
Is AI the new experimenter? For one agency, the answer is yes.
At Codeword, a tech marketing agency that sits within WE Communication, its new “interns” come in the form of software models who produce content and graphic design, This was reported by Axios. (It’s not clear if Codeword is just relying on ChatGPT and DALL-E or another software vendor.)
The Codeword interns are called Aiko and Aiden, and they appear to report to real people. Aiko sits alongside Senior Art Director Emilio Ramos, while Aiden will face performance reviews from Editor-in-Chief Terrence Doyle. (Seriously, both will receive performance reviews.)
Aiko and Aiden aren’t ready to work with the client – but that’s not the point.
Terrence Doyle says, “This is an opportunity to regulate internal processes by eliminating necessary but mind-numbing and time-consuming tasks, or at least transfer them to non-boring emotional practitioners.”
Like many unpaid interns before them, Aiko and Aiden receive no compensation. Instead, Codeword says it will donate the equivalent hourly intern wages A celebration of Grace Hopper.
This was written by One Person
Speaking of AI developments, tech news and reviews site CNET is quietly using “automation technology” to create a series of articles designed as financial explanations. Futurism reports.
The line says “CNET Money Staff,” which confirms that the articles you clicked on were generated using automation.
Still, the confusion of the first layer is noteworthy, as Google in particular is laser-focused on removing AI-written content and AI-generated images from front-page search results.
Over the past few months, Google has been making major updates to its search algos to reduce spam and low-quality content. Interestingly, Google considers “low-quality” and “AI-generated” content is a practical synonym. In Google’s eyes, content written by technology (*cough* ChatGPT *cough*) is redundant, regardless of the quality of the end product.
After Microsoft completes $10 billion, Google will probably stay in that position Invest in ChatGPTits parent company is OpenAI and integrates ChatGPT responses into the Bing search engine.
Expect a lot of great debate over whether Google is the one that’s killing the news by taking away ad revenue, or whether ChatGPT is taking over editorial jobs. Can’t both be true?
What killed growth?
The full recession hasn’t hit yet, but Apple’s ATT policy has created a small dent in the social media advertising economy, writes Eric Seufert. Mobile Dev Memo.
Throughout 2022, Big Tech stock prices fell as interest rates rose. But the ATT’s impact on income was evident even before the Fed began raising interest rates in March 2022.
Google, Meta and Snap cited rough macroeconomic conditions as the reason for the missed growth targets. But consumer brands like Nike, Walmart and Costco have seen their sales and profits continue to grow.
While consumer spending is healthy, advertiser spending is down thanks to ATT’s impact on overall ROAS. When direct response advertising becomes less effective, marketers cut their budgets. The share of ad revenue generated on iOS devices decreased from 60% in 2020 to 46% in Q2 2022.
Need more proof? While ad-dependent tech companies are making massive layoffs, the same is not true for the U.S. economy. Unemployment remains around 3.5%, the lowest level in 53 years.
Arguably, social media and DTC advertisers can blame Apple, not the economy, for their woes.
But wait, there’s more!
Lowe’s brings One Roof Media Network’s advertising sales and operations in-house. [Ad Age]
What happened when this olive oil startup apologized. [WSJ]
Neiman Marcus executives are making a case for sustained retail profitability. [WWD]
Gamers are flocking from premium games to free, ad-supported games in a volatile economy. [Digiday]
You are hired!
JEGI Clarity promotes Rich Kanefsky to managing director. [release]
Power Digital brings on Michael Murray as chief product officer. [release]